New York Marathon cancelled for the first time in its history as Sandy chaos continues

Runners who were due to take part in the New York City Marathon have expressed
their disappointment after Mayor Michael Bloomberg cancelled the race at the
eleventh hour amid fears it may detract from the Superstorm Sandy clean-up.

9:19AM GMT 03 Nov 2012

Some 47,000 entrants from all over the world had been due to take part in Sunday's marathon but, just hours after Michael Bloomberg insisted the race would go ahead, came a surprise U-turn. This is the first time that the race has been cancelled, it even went ahead in 2001, just two months after the September 11 terror attacks.

The decision was welcomed by New Yorkers who had organised a social media campaign asking officials to scrap the event, saying it would be in poor taste while people were still suffering in the wake of Sandy. There were also safety concerns, amid fears that police resources might be stretched.

However, thousands of runners who have spent months training for the event, like Teri Butler from Houston in Texas, have been left disappointed: "We spent thousands of dollars to bring our family here, paid for hotel rooms, airline tickets. Cancel it before we come.

"Cancel it two days ago when everyone had an opportunity to not spend all that money. We understand and we're so sorry for the people who've suffered and a natural disaster is a terrible thing but we can't change that. So let us run, and we were donating so much to the cause. We were helping people through our running."